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By now, you know how to choose a good domain name but choosing a good web hosting plan can be equally tough. Ultimately it is the factor that keeps your website up and running.

Choosing a good web hosting plan is somewhat similar to choosing a mobile. You don’t need to have in-depth knowledge of its components but some basic things that make a mobile tick. Similarly, you don’t need to learn every component just to pick a good web hosting plan. Just some basic stuff that makes a makes a web hosting plan stands out from the others.

In this post, I will show you how you can evaluate and pick the perfect hosting plan that best suits your needs.

1. Disk Space

While looking for a web hosting plan one of the most important factors is disk space/web space.

For small or medium websites you will find lots of options where different web hosting companies are offering multiple GBs of web space and some even come up with an unlimited space plan.

Which seems too good to be true…right?

Now here’s that catch, before you fall for the unlimited space hype make sure you take a look at their CPU usage policy. Most web hosts allow a maximum of 25% CPU usage limit. Also, most of them won’t let you exceed this limit for more than 90 seconds. If you think you might be close to maximum or exceed that limit you have to go to to a higher plan or you can use Cloudflare (Free Plan) to save some resource use.

And if you are a web developer and want to host a large site for your client then I would highly recommend going for DigitalOcean (Click this link for a $10 FREE credit).

2. Bandwidth

This is one of the most obvious things that a web host shows count on along with storage.

But what the heck is bandwidth?

It’s basically the total amount of data you and your website visitors can upload download per month. Still confused?

Let me explain…

Let’s say your website is 1 MB of data and your web host provides you with 10 MB of monthly bandwidth. Now if a visitor visits all your web page, they will download 1 MB of data. So in that given month, you can have 9 more visitors to your website (assuming they will visit all your web page).

Now you might ask, what will happen if you exceed you monthly bandwidth transfer? Then you web host might charge you per MB (similarly your mobile data plan) and if you don’t want to pay your web host will block your visitors and they will see a page something like this.

If you are running a very popular website with millions of monthly visitors, or you are hosting your own videos or sharing high-resolution images, then you should be worried about bandwidth. And just like unlimited storage, many web hosts provide “Unlimited Bandwidth”, so make sure to learn more about their usage policy.

3. Language Support

Before you pick your hosting plan you should be aware of what your website is made of. Your server side language support must go hand in hand with your website.

As an example, if your website is made with PHP, WordPress. Magento, or any other PHP & MySQL based framework then you should go for Linux Hosting and if your website is made with ASP .NET & MySQL then you should go for Windows hosting. This is good for most small & medium scale websites but this doesn’t mean you should always look for PHP, ASP .NET or MySQL support.

If you want to move to Ruby on Rails in coming future make sure your web host supports it. And if you want to switch to Django, make sure there’s Python support.

4. Email Accounts

Many web hosts provide email accounts for your domain name. Do look for this in your web hosting plan also check which email clients do they support. Do they support web-based clients such as Horde, SquirrelMail, RoundCube or similar? How about integration with Zoho Mail or G Suite (formerly Google Apps)? Do they support mail client choice via IMAP and POP?

Also, don’t forget to check for email security such as SSL certificate, and SpamAssassin for protecting your email from spammers.

5. Tech Support

Tech support is on of the most important factors you should look into. Because if your site goes down or you are having some problem with email or something else, with a support from your web host it’s hard to get back on track.

So, first and foremost do check what kind of support they are offering phone, chat, email or support ticket? At what times and how fast do they respond? You should look for fast and quality supports which all of your concerns you have. Never go for a web host until unless you know exactly what support they offer.

Conclusion

There are plenty of factors you have to consider while choosing a web host. Again, I would recommend going with Bluehost or HostGator. But do your own research and figure out which one will suit you the most.

I hope this article will help you to choose a good web hosting plan. I didn’t want to overwhelm you with too much information, so I’ve left aside many details. Try to go with a good web hosting company and remember these tactics while choosing a plan and everything will fall into place.

Now it’s your turn.

What other things do you consider while picking the best hosting plan that suits your needs? Share your valuable thoughts in the comments section below.

Choosing a perfect domain name for your website or blog can be a challenging task. It is one of the first steps to establish your online identity and something you have to live with for quite a long time.

It’s highly important that you pick the right domain name for your business. The domain name should be short, memorable, brandable and as most top-level TLDs are already taken, it’s not as easy task.

Name Mesh is a great domain name generator tool to find available domain names based on top level domains, gTLDs as well as name suggestions and synonyms based on your search. And if you are looking for exact match domains (EMD) or partial match domains (PMD) it tool will take care of that. But I wouldn’t recommend going for EMD or PMDs due to Google’s EMD update. It also shows you short domain names as an example del.icio.us, foc.us, citi.es etc.

The best part about this tool is it helps you to check social username availability based on your keyword.

It’s a great domain name suggestion tool to find hundreds, if not thousands of domain name suggestions from a single keyword. But this tool only shows you available domains with .COM extension. You can also filter the suggestions alphabetically, by length and domains starts or ends with your keywords. So if you have your business or blog name ready with you then this tool can give you some fresh ideas for a full domain.

The best part about this tool is that you can copy the whole search results to the clipboard with just a click of a button which you can save on your computer in a word document.

Panabee not only searches for domain names but also shows you unique business name. Get started with one or two keywords and it will show you available .COM domains names or any other TLDs you want. If you like any name you can directly visit GoDaddy with just one click to see if the domain name is taken or not. Panabee will also show you related search terms and social media username availability based on your keyword.

The best part about this tool is that it shows you available apps both on iTunes and Play Store just in case you are searching for a name for your new app.

It’s a fantastic domain name generator tool to find new domain names as well as recently expired domains by exploring website and traffic details. Domain Scope has also an integrated tool called “Keyword Lab” which gives you the power to experiment with related words, translations and word endings. What keyword endings is that it breaks your keyword into two parts and adds an ending to it. For example keyword “shop” + “ify” ending = shopify.

The best part about this tools is that it lets you save your search by creating an account. Not only that you can save your favourite domain names, search criteria and your preferred registrars to enable a quick start to the registration process.

Impossibility! is a domain name generator tool that takes a direct approach with a much easier and uncluttered interface. This tool lets you add adjectives, verbs, or nouns at the beginning or at end of your keyword. You can also choose between 4-letter, 5-letter, and 6-letter options, or you can just mix anything with your keyword. Its multiple servers work parallelly to show you the results as fast as possible.

The only drawback of this tool is that it will show you available domains with only .COM extension.

And if you are still looking for some more advice on choosing a good domain name then this handy infographic by WhoIsHostingThis will solve your problem.

Conclusion

In most cases, the first impression of your business will be through your domain name. It is the first step to towards branding your online presence. Good branding always makes things easier but also make sure that you choose a good website hosting company to host your website. It’s always recommended to keep both your domain and hosting under one roof as it makes things easier to manage.

I hope these domain name generator tools will help you to find the right domain name for your website or blog. Let me know one did you like the most.

Now it’s your turn.

What other tools do you recommend while choosing a domain name? Share your valuable thoughts in the comments section below.

Let’s be honest.the word “FREE” often resonates with most of us. And creating your very first website or blog absolutely free is exciting on its own. I can understand it’s easier to start with something free rather than paying for it when you are just testing the water. Many people start with free web hosting and think they will move to a better host when their business/blog grows. But in many cases, it turns out to be a bad decision.

While the internet offers plenty of free hosting gigs, have you ever wondered why the serious bloggers and business owners always opt for paid hosting? In most cases, free hosting is not really free at the end.

Many web hosting company offers free hosting to promote their business. It generally comes with limited space, bandwidth and support for free. And obviously, free hosting won’t be ass good as paid hosting.

1. Limited Space & Resources

When you are just starting up you might not be worried about hosting space. But if you are posting on your blog on a daily/weekly basis and include images, infographics, audio or video files in your post then, space & bandwidth are the two things you should be worried about. A “free host” provides limited about of web space & bandwidth, which means if you are growing your site rapidly soon you have to upgrade to their paid plan.

Some free hosts may also limit your traffic or monthly bandwidth transfer to a lower side so that when you exceed it either you have to upgrade or your website goes down and you have to wait until a new cycle starts and your allotment is reset.

And if you are using WordPress you might face problems with some plugins or API connections. Some free hosting companies might block outgoing connections and so plugins like Akismet or Jetpack might now work.

But the scary part is that free web hosting is often less secure, which means chances are your website is vulnerable to hackers. Which leads to hacked or malware affected site resulting data loss but also leads to losing your rankings.

Google looks into your other sites which are hosted along with your website. Spammers often use the free hosting for their spamming activity. So if your site is hosted along with spammy/hacked/porn sites you will stop receiving the love from Google.

3. Free Hosting is Unreliable

Free web hosting is a marketing technique popularised by paid hosting companies. Generally, they offer free hosting, to get you started, and expect that eventually, you’ll upgrade to their paid hosting packages. Now if you are in a free plan, these companies reserve the right to place ads on your website. They can even shut down your account without giving you any reason. As an example, both Blogger and WordPress.com can advertise and modify the material on your blog.

As servers are becoming costly, sometimes companies offering free hosting use old and outdated servers to cut down recurring cost. Because customers on the free plan are less important than paying customers, it often takes longer to get a response from the customer support, which can result in more downtime. And it’s all free so your can’t really complain.

So, in short here are some pros and cons of free web hosting.

Conclusion

Well, there will be always an argument whether you should use a free web host to host your blog. If you want to blog just for hobby, then you can start with Blogger.com (as switching from Blogger to WordPress is easy). But for businesses, I would say if you can afford to a pizza once a month, you can more than afford to go for a reliable and paid hosting.

I hope by now you can understand free website hosting has many downsides while paid hosting has become fairly cheap nowadays. But before taking any decision you must do your research and ask the right questions. It’s always a good idea to spend a small amount of money into web hosting which ultimately ensures security, flexibility, and full control. And when it comes reliable web hosts you can surely trust on Bluehost with 5.95 per month or try Hostgator with a penny for the first month.

Now, it’s your turn!

Have you ever tried free web hosting? How was your experience? Share your valuable thoughts in the comments section below.